Is fixed-price custom software development possible?

In a recent conversation with a CIO over some salty eggs and coffee in a conference room tucked in the bowels of a conference hotel, I explained the philosophy of offering fixed-price agile development. He looked at me as if I had just created a new Chaos Theory. Or maybe I had a banana in my ear. Maybe both.

“Are you insane?” He asked. “This is simply not done.”

“Simply not done” is an invitation to innovation in IT and it’s where disruption happens.

These were the first words out of his mouth. Simply. Not. Done. Admittedly, hearing his response, I was wondering if maybe I wasn’t a bit touched by madness. But hear me out — this is important and it can impact your business – and, more importantly, your bottom line.

We have seen far too many software projects go over-budget, and with 20 years of software metrics available to us (internal, secret sauce stuff), plus some really good estimation tools, and a lot of project management horsepower, we are at a point where we can deliver certain projects on a fixed-price basis. Yes, fixed-price agile development.

It’s like going to a fancy French restaurant and getting all the food, and, more importantly the wine, for one price.

I know to most consultants, this is going to sound like pure blasphemy — with time and material models embraced as the Holy Grail. But we have found by adding initial steps that measure team performance at a functional level, and by engaging strong product management skills, and adding no small measure of secret sauce (from our parametric tools, which is not as painful as it sounds), we can statistically project timelines and costs accurately. If you want a peek at our methods, take a look at this white paper.

Reducing risk makes development projects a lot more fun and a lot more impactful — for your customers and your long-term relevance.

So, yeah. Fixed-price software development is not only possible, it’s real. And we’re doing it. And we’ll even pair it with wine.